


The Ups and Downs of Dragon Day Care

by Fandoms_Everywhere_United



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Dragons, Fluff, Gen, I also hope it's as funny as I thought it was, One Big Happy Family, duh - Freeform, i'm so sorry for these tags, it's really fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 16:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandoms_Everywhere_United/pseuds/Fandoms_Everywhere_United
Summary: Taking care of a baby dragon was far harder than any of them had suspected it would be.  Azymondias always seemed to sleep when they needed to be moving, and play when they were trying to sleep.None of them had even thought about what they would have to deal with when they had an actual dragon traveling with them.  On top of that, he was ababydragon.  What were they supposed to do with that?But, there was one thing that they did know for certain, and that was that they wouldn’t have traded traveling with Zym for the world.





	The Ups and Downs of Dragon Day Care

**Author's Note:**

> Ahahahahahah!!! I have found a new fandom!!!
> 
> Seriously, I've been here for less than 24 hours and I'm already putting something up. Something is seriously wrong with me I think.
> 
> Anyway, tell me what you think of this!!!

Taking care of a baby dragon was far harder than any of them had suspected it would be. Azymondias always seemed to sleep when they needed to be moving, and play when they were trying to sleep.

None of them had even thought about what they would have to deal with when they had an actual dragon traveling with them. On top of that, he was a _baby_ dragon. What were they supposed to do with that?

But, there was one thing that they did know for certain, and that was that they wouldn’t have traded traveling with Zym for the world.

\---

“Ez!” Callum shouted, as he noncommittedly bats Zym’s inquisitive snout away from his sandwich. “Can you come over here and tell Zym that this is my food?”

Ezran swung upside down from a tree branch in front of the mage. The sun peered through the branches and landed right across the bridge of the prince’s nose, illuminating his freckles. His unkempt hair was pulled down by gravity, and there was some type of purple berry juice smeared across his mouth. “I already told you, Callum.” He wiped his mouth somewhat clean with his hand, which of course only transferred the sticky mess to his hands. “He says he believes in _sharing_.”

Callum rolled his eyes. “Of course that’s what he said.” He took a bite of his sandwich while making direct eye contact with the dragon. “My food.” He said, very carefully. “It is mine, and not yours.”

Zym’s eyes widened and softened almost immediately. He curled himself into a small ball and sat down right on Callum’s lap. The dragon’s head nuzzled right under the red scarf around his neck. He curled up tighter, and Callum could feel the vibrations that came from Zym’s humming.

Ezran, who had somehow made his way down from the tree and right in front of his step-brother frowned. His lower lip protruded slightly. “You made him sad.” From his pockets, he pulled out a handful of orange berries. “Here you go, buddy.” Zym happily licked the berries from his hand, and Ezran giggled and pat the top of his head, leaving a purple handprint on the top of his white carapace.

Zym chortled in a crude imitation of Ez’s giggle, then rubbed his head back against Callum’s clothes, wiping the sticky juice off on him. “Oh, come on. Did you tell him to do that?” He looked at his younger brother.

“Of course not,” Ezran said, trying not to laugh at the bright purple stain standing out against the dark blue shirt. “He’s just a baby; he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Callum narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the white dragon in his lap who was looking at him with, big, wide, innocent eyes. He couldn’t stay mad at those eyes for long. “Fine.” He sighed. “I forgive you.” He reached down to pat the top of Zym’s head who took the opportunity to snatch what was left of his sandwich from his other hand. He looked at the thief who was licking his lips in satisfaction.

“Forgiveness retracted.”

\---

“Has anyone seen my left shoe?” Rayla asked over dinner one night.

Callum took another bite of the fish that they were eating before he wryly shot back, “Have you tried looking on your right foot?”

“Oddly enough, I have. I tried looking on my left foot, too.” She wiggled her four fingers playfully as well. “I also looked on my hands, both of ‘em. I’m fresh out of left shoes.” She lifted both feet up in the air and showed off her shoeless left foot.

Ezran cocked his head as he shared some of his fish with Bait, removing a clear bone from the meat. “Rayla, do you have four toes too?”

“What does that have to do with my missing shoe, Ez?” She asked in answer after putting her feet down. She stared intently at him over the fire as she popped a piece of fish into her mouth.

The youngest shook his head vehemently, but his eyes were focused behind the elf. She started to turn and look at what had captured his attention, but he shouted loudly, startling everyone in the clearing. “DON’T!” Callum raised an eyebrow at him, and Ezran continued more quietly, “Don’t you um… think that… we should… Focus on cleaning these fish better?” He finished awkwardly and flashed the two of them an award-winning smile. “I mean, this is the third bone I’ve found so far!” He held up three of the tiny, transparent bones that were almost invisible against the firelight.

“You’ve had 4 fish, Ez,” Callum said, unimpressed.

“BUT!” He exclaimed, holding his hands out and waving them so that their attention would be drawn toward him. “There were two bones in this one fish!”

“And that was the fish that you cleaned, Ez. What’s going on?” Callum asked.

Ezran’s green eyes widened comically as he squeaked out, “Nothing! Why would something be wrong?”

The others both rolled their eyes and turned around, only to see Zym on his back. His wings were spread out on either side of him to keep him balanced, and all of his feet were in the air, scrambling over something that he was chewing on.

Something that looked an awful lot like a left shoe.

\---

Ezran was looking under rocks.

He was methodically picking them up; peering at their underbellies, then where they were just a moment ago; and then finally putting them back down and moving onto the next one.

Callum knew that he had been doing this for an hour because he had been watching him the entire time. He kept looking up from his sketch of the area that they were in, wondering why all of the rocks never seemed to be where they had been a few moments ago.

Finally, his curiosity was piqued beyond what he could handle, “Ez, what are you doing?” Ezran looked at him after he set down the grey stone that was in his hand back on top of the mini-ecosystem that he had uncovered.

“I’m looking for Zym.” He said simply as he picked up another stone, or maybe that one was a rock? He inspected it, then put it back down where he had picked it up.

Callum blinked slowly, trying to filter through the words. “You’re looking for Azymondias. The baby dragon that hatched from an egg that barely fit in a backpack? The baby dragon that has not shrunk in the slightest since he hatched?” He asked for clarification.

“Yep.” Ezran popped the ‘p’ playfully. “We’re playing Hide-and-go-Seek. He said that he would be in a place that I would never expect, so I’m looking in every place I can think of.” He explained.

“Maybe you should try looking in places that he could only logically be?” He suggested, trying to be as helpful as he could. “That would cut your Seeking time in half, maybe even more than that.”

“That’s what I tried last time.” He said as he picked up a rock -it _was_ a rock this time, wasn’t it? “But then he was in a place that I didn’t think he could be. So I’m teaching him a lesson. I’m searching every single place, even the ones that he physically cannot be in or under, and he’s going to have to wait for me to find him.”

The mage blinked again. That was… surprisingly malicious for a kid. Was he going to discourage it? Hell no. “In that case, have you made sure to check behind each and every blade of grass?”

A mischievous grin spread across Ezran’s lips, “No, I have not.” His grin spread wider, and a glint appeared in his eye as he innocently asked, “Would you help me look?”

“Well,” Callum said, trying to evade the time dump that he knew this was going to turn into. “I thought that you wanted this to take as long as humanly possible? Wouldn’t adding another person to the hunt cut the time in half?”

“What if I want to spend valuable time with my brother, and besides, wouldn’t you want to be rewarded for coming up with a new idea to find Zym?”

Callum sighed in defeat, “Yeah, I’ll help you. But only for looking behind the grass.” He held his finger up in warning, making his point clear.

He bent down and brushed his hand through a square of grass, back and forth, then he moved to the next square before Ezran whined in protest. “Caaaaaalluuuuuum. You have to look at every single blade of grass.”

“Ez, you know I love you, but I am not going to look at every. Single. Blade. Of. Grass.”

The young prince stuck out his bottom lip pathetically, trying to sway his older brother to his side, but at the same time that he did, they both heard a roar echo through the woods.

They had grown accustomed to Zym’s playful yips and his hungry growls, but this was something else entirely; the boys weren’t sure what to think about it. All it took was one look from Callum to send both boys instantly running off through the woods. Branches snapped in front of them, cutting their faces and more than once they tripped and fell on a something and bruised their knee or leg.

A flash of white scales in the midst of the green woods had them turning sharply and slipping on the loose hubris of the ground. Out of the branches, they ran straight into a clearing.

An empty clearing.

Well, mostly empty. Sitting on a log no more than ten feet away was a baby bear. Zym was nowhere to be found, but as they turned to re-enter the woods, they came almost face-to-face with a mother bear. A mother bear who was taller than Ezran would be even if he were sitting on Callum’s shoulders and at least three times as heavy. Probably more.

And she did not look happy.

The bear growled low in her throat. Her yellow teeth were bared, and they were dripping with viscous saliva. She had a scar across her snout, and when she breathed on them, the air was hot, sticky, and smelled worse than the time that a barrel of fish had been left out in the sun for a week.

“H-h-hey, um… Ez. What’s she saying?” Callum asked, hoping that his teeth weren’t chattering too loudly.

Ezran gulped audibly next to him. His eyes weren’t drifting from the mother bear’s, but he whispered back. “‘Don’t talk to me or my son ever again.’ Basically. There’s a lot of words there that I don’t think I’m allowed to say.”

Callum nodded, “Probably a good idea.”

The bear pulled back; she stood up on her hind legs and raised her paw. The claws must have been an inch long at least, and they were spread wide. Just as she brought her paw down, ready to disembowel whatever was in her path, several things happened.

Callum closed his eyes and gripped the back of his brother’s shirt and pulled him behind him and out of harm’s way. Rayla swung into the clearing, just in time to see the situation and know that she was too late to stop it.

Then Zym burst from out of the trees and landed on the bear’s arm enough to unbalance her and send her toppling to the ground. She snarled at the dragon on top of her, but Zym only cocked his head to the side and licked at her scar.

Callum and Ezran ran as quickly as they could to the elf while the cub ran over to its mother playfully. The two babies yipped and tumbled in the dirt. White on brown, brown on white, yin and yang.

The mother bear sauntered over and sniffed at Zym curiously. He raised his own claws and brandished the shiny quarter inch knives at her, and she carefully inspected the little claws before rubbing the top of her head on the dragon’s.

“What… just happened?” Rayla asked.

“I think… Zym might have just been adopted by a bear and saved our lives?” Ezran supplied cautiously. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the dragon came bounding over to the three people and wrapped himself around the youngest’s leg like a cat.

The mother bear moved in a surprisingly human manner that looked almost like a nod. Then she turned around and walked away, her cub running between her legs.

Everyone looked down at Zym, whose eyes were wide with innocence.

Raising a dragon could be tough work, but none of them would have traded it for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Tell me what you thought in the comments below and be sure to give it a few kudos if you really liked it!!!


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